Revelations about the sloppy, arrogant business practices of a nationally known Skagit County retailer with a lethal inventory are stunning.

To know that Kesselring Gun Shop had been arming generations with virtually no regulatory oversight, even after grotesque violations were discovered, made Seattle Times reporter Mike Carter’s story all the more shocking.

Nearly a decade ago, after more than a half-century in business, the gun shop received its first visit by inspectors with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

They discovered that nearly 2,400 assault-style rifles and handguns could not be accounted for. A seemingly incurious ATF did nothing for the next five years.

Incredibly, it took a nasty state workers’ compensation claim inside the family-owned business to provide any transparency about the pumping of thousands of lethal weapons into society.

As Carter pointed out, when the ATF finally made Kesselring a priority, inspectors spent four months compiling evidence of ATF violations “in virtually every aspect of the shop’s operation.”

The gun shop failed to have buyers provide key information on purchase forms. Instant background checks were not documented. Guns were sold to non-Washington residents. Multiple handgun sales to one person were not documented in a half-dozen cases.

The company surrendered its license last October. That leaves Washington with 1,093 firearms dealers.

The longtime San Diego gang is known for its ruthless violence, from execution-style murders to the shooting of a pregnant woman.

Now U-T San Diego reports that federal authorities nabbed most of the 55 suspected members of the West Coast Crips in pre-dawn raids Thursday, changing them with crimes spanning from murder and armed robberies to prostitution drug dealing.

The suspected mastermind, Randy Alton Graves, was among those arrested.

The crackdown came on the heels of phone surveillance and undercover drug buys, authorities said.

The startling wiretaps reveal that the gangsters “think nothing about murdering rivals in San Diego and they think nothing of executing their own, when their own are even suspected of being disloyal,” U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said at a news conference.

Seized in the raids were 16 guns, more than 4 pounds of meth, 4,400 pounds of pot and $300,000 in counterfeit money.

A Congresswoman is calling for the Justice Department to study the racial impact of “Stand Your Ground” laws, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Cleveland, and a group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter Tuesday to AG Eric Holder to plead for more documentation and study of the laws that permit people to use deadly force before retreating. More than two dozens states have laws similar to “Stand Your Ground.”

The letter states that “Stand Your Ground” laws “are contributing to increases in homicides and firearm injuries and are exacerbating racial disparities in the criminal justice system.”

The school shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary appears to be driving an unprecedented number of gun sales, the Atlantic Wire reports.

In fact, 9 of the 10 days with the most requests ever for FBI background checks occurred after the Dec. 14 shooting, according to the Atlantic Wire. And in Sandy Hook, home of the school shooting, gun permits have more than doubled.

On the day of the shooting, the FBI conducted 113,022 checks. The most was Dec. 21, when 177,170 background checks were conducted.

“America is buying guns at a rate that we’ve never seen before,” the Atlantic Wire wrote.

The FBI’s firearm training has begun focusing on close-quarters combat after a review found that most agent-involved shootings are within point-blank range, the USA Today reports.

The new training protocol is a dramatic shift for an agency that has relied on long-range marksmanship training.

After reviewing about 200 shootings during a 17-year period involving FBI agents, the bureau found that 75% were within 3 yards when gunfire was exchanged, the USA Today reported.

“The thing that jumps out at you from the (shooting incident) research is that if we’re not preparing agents to get off three to four rounds at a target between 0 and 3 yards, then we’re not preparing them for what is likely to happen in the real world,” FBI training instructor Larry “Pogo” Akin told the USA Today.

The new training also requires agents to draw their guns from holsters shielded by jackets or blazers to replicate real-life scenarios.